i was reading field and stream magazine today in the drs office and i came across this "tip" about slapping the hamster. from what i read i understand it is when you are fishing streamers and you heavily drop them on the waters surface, hence slapping the hamster. my question is, what purpose does this serve? and is this technique effective? and has anyone used this?

I think what they're talking about here is the message that a hard hitting land creature sends to predatory fishes. The "hamster" merely refers to mice and voles which do get eaten by bass and trout. I think under certain conditions, particularly at night, bass and trout will move to investigate the sound of something dropping in the water. Of course, slapping terrestrials on the surface has been a proven way to get a trout's attention - this is the same concept writ larger.

i also think this is a form of a post i put up about jerk casting. taking a streamer and hitting the surface of the water hard. a large trout will sometimes instantly strike. it represents a larger bait fish seeing the trout and scattering for cover. it works about 1 percent of the time. not a good percentage.

Maybe it’s a western thing. On my first trip to Montana, I hired a guide since I had no idea of where to fish, and I needed a teacher for my nephew, since he was a first time fly fisherman. We were in the West Yellowstone area in late June. Most of the rivers were still roaring from the spring runoff. The guide took us to the Madison River, which was bank full, but fairly clear. When I saw the condition of the river I thought he was nuts, but he told me this will be some of the best fishing I have ever seen. He told me to fish in the margins of the stream inches from the bank and slap down my bugger with each cast. I did that, and time and time again a big rainbow would attack as soon as it touched down. Between the high water and the big fish, I believe that day I was into my backing more than any other day I have ever fished. I’ve tried it since, and it has never really worked that well. It probably scares more fish than it catches, but during high water you may want to give it a try to get the fishes attention.

My dad, who still has resisted the extra work involved in learning to fly cast uses a casting bubble on his little telescopic spinning rod. When we hiked up to mountain lakes in Idaho, he would have much success when that bubble smacked down on the lake rining the dinner bell for those cutts. I've experienced dumb fish that couldn't locate a precisely presented fly but turned to look at one that was smacked down on the water. Hey , whatever works, man.

I saw a friend of mine, a real fish hawk, do the following on Spring Creek. He cast clear across the creek to almost on the opposite bank, then stripped as fast as he could. I was saying, What the ....?

But about 1/4 of the way across the creek there was this big wake, like Jaws, coming after it. He had a few follows like this, and landed one big one. I couldn't believe it. He did this in the fall, when the fish are aggressive.

There are some people out there that know some tricks that you don't hear much about.

I fish big buuny streamers ie size 2 tandems hinged. I "slap the hmpster "alot .. Its very effective if you can cast from one side of the pool to the other . I caught lots of trout this year before i even made a strip ....but its all technique